We welcomed two players from Japan this year, Hide Hisanaga
and Akahisa Tabei. Hide performed well in the tournament, besting
past champions Bruno Wolff and David DesJardins in the second
and third rounds, and losing to past champion Aaron Fuegi in
the semi-final to take 3rd place. Throughout the tournament,
he delighted all with whom he came into contact, and he was courteous
and considerate to everyone. Thank you to both of our new friends
from Japan.

Sean McCulloch got to the Final by beating former champion
Dan Strock in the first round and newcomer Geoff Pounder in the
third. Against Geoff, in the match to see who would face Aaron
in the Final, he attacked with three warlocks early enough that
Geoff's Titan was still strength six, and five out of six warlock
range strikes on the Titan meant the battle was decided.

in the deciding battle of the Final, Aaron attacked a stack
with his 6-strength Titan that should have been an easy kill.
Two trolls held down the right flank. Aaron put a ranger between
them and his Titan on the outside troll, protected by the edge
of the battlefield and a line of creatures filling in behind.
His Titan swung on the troll and got only two hits, four out
of six ones on the dice. Even with this downside, the ranger
swung at the other troll, since the Titan and ranger easily kill
the outside troll on the next swing. But long odds made their
presence felt. The two trolls got eight hits, needing sixes,
out of sixteen dice, to kill the ranger and put four hits on
the Titan. All was not lost, since Aaron could still escape.
Sean's gorgon flew to take the spot vacated by the dead ranger,
and gorgon and troll together only got one additional hit on
Aaron's Titan. However, the warlock and ranger now adjacent to
the gorgon only got five hits, needing six to kill it. Aaron
might have been able to kill both the troll and gorgon if he
had gotten more hits on his first Titan swing, but now those
two creatures had seven hits of life and Aaron had but six dice
left. His Titan fell on the next swing, and Sean McCulloch became
a first time champion. Well done Sean! We'll be looking forward
to having you defend your title next year.